Snow and freezing rain to cause major travel problems across the Gulf Coast

AccuWeather

AccuWeather meteorologists are warning that large amounts of snow and ice could effectively shut down travel for days across parts of the Gulf Coast and Southeast.

Transcript

00:00John, it's good to see you. We have a mess and, you know, I want to get into the snow and the ice with you.

00:04Just big picture, we got a stripe of blue all the way down, pancake across the Gulf Coast here.

00:10So rare, and as you said, an unusual, highly disruptive and dangerous setup here in the

00:16coming days. Let's make no mistake about it, this is going to shut down, effectively shut down travel

00:22along large portions of the Gulf Coast here, probably for several days, a high impact storm.

00:29And John, as we watch this play out, we've got cold pushing south across the plains,

00:33and also moisture emerging from the Gulf.

00:35That's a bad combination because that press of arctic air is going to provide the bitter cold

00:41that's going to result in that snow and sleet and freezing rain in some places, and it will be

00:46rapidly expanding. So the rush hour gets off to a rough start here in the Houston metro area.

00:51First thing tomorrow, look at all this blue, that's the snow, pink is the icy mix, green is

00:57rain, and the yellow is some areas of heavier rain, and that will expand from Houston, Beaumont,

01:02Port Arthur, out east along I-10 to include Lake Charles and New Orleans tomorrow.

01:08When some of this snow is going to be falling at a rate, look at the dark blues in here,

01:12some of the snow is going to be falling at a rate of one to two inches per hour.

01:16Put that into perspective, that's tough for the road crews to keep up with in the northern

01:20part of the United States that deals with snow all the time. That's why we're so concerned about

01:25many road closures and major travel disruptions here in the south where there's less snow plows,

01:30less salters, less sanders, and things of that nature, and then all that snow moves up into parts

01:36of far southeast Georgia and up into coastal areas of north Carolina here as we make our way

01:43into Tuesday night. So a big mess on the way as well as north Florida. Some snow and sleet and

01:49freezing rain expected there too. And John, here we have our snowfall forecast. We've broken out

01:53the six to twelve inch forecast range there for an area along I-10 in Louisiana, just incredible.

01:59A very unusual area, so from the northeastern suburbs of Houston out toward Lake Charles, six

02:04to twelve inches, we've expanded the three to six inch snowfall area to include the New Orleans

02:09metro area. And remember there are a lot of elevated roadways, bridges, overpasses, things of

02:15this nature across the Gulf Coast, and those are going to be especially problematic from a slippery

02:20travel perspective. And Houston's one city where I often think of elevated road surfaces. There are

02:24lots of highways to get around town. There's no way to get around in Houston tomorrow. Absolutely

02:28just a nasty combination. The snow and ice, one-two punch here. Some are going to see a lot

02:32of sleet, but others will see freezing rain. Especially across far south Texas with that

02:37freezing rain concern, and then across southeast Georgia and northern Florida. The press of arctic

02:42air though is so impressive here with this system that it looks like a lot of places will be mainly

02:47snow. It's going to be an incredible storm there, and here we have our AccuWeather Wintercast ice

02:51for Mobile. A quarter inch of ice may not sound like a lot if you're not used to it. That's a huge

02:55problem. It sure is, especially in the south. This is a great time to download the AccuWeather app.

03:00Wintercast is available for any location around the country. You can see how much snow we're

03:05expecting in your backyard, plus the prospects snow and ice, plus the prospects for a little

03:09bit more and a little bit less. One other thing to remember about this, and this is very important

03:13here. We're concerned about major road closures, sometimes perhaps hundreds of miles of I-10,

03:20which will be sort of the epicenter of this snow and ice storm across the Gulf Coast. It may be

03:24closed for extended periods of time, and just because the snow and ice ends doesn't mean the

03:30impacts will. The cold is going to prolong the impacts, so watch for refreezes at night. Some

03:35of these roads are still going to be perhaps impassable in some areas for the next several

03:41days, so a major impact on the way. AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist John Porter. John, thanks as

03:46always. Thank you.

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